One of the six targets as part of the current ‘Closing the Gap’ agenda is to halve the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade (by 2018). Much of the focus around meeting this target has been the availability of jobs in remote Australia....

In this paper we investigate the impact on regional labour markets of an increase in primary factor productivity in the Utilities sector. We conjecture that such an increase in productivity is illustrative of the direct effects of national competition policy (NCP). We compute, at the regional...

Despite Australia enjoying unprecedented growth since the early 1990s, pockets of socio-demographic and regional disadvantage persist. Studies of disadvantaged workers often focus on regions experiencing employment decline; this paper instead explores how disadvantaged workers have fared in...

This article explores the links between low pay, unemployment and labour market churning over the period 2001 to 2006. The issue of churning is explored through analysis of the HILDA calendar data, in which job starts and job terminations are modelled using multinomial logit regressions. The...

This paper uses Australian micro-data to test the insider-outsider model. As part of this, the paper also examines whether the distinction between insiders and outsiders has more relevance for males or females. Provisional support for the theory is found. The paper finds that males have more...

During the last intercensal period there was a net transfer of Indigenous Australians to urban Australia from more remote parts of the country. With the withdrawal of a number of Indigenous specific labour market programs, this net migration is likely to intensify into the future. The aim of...

The dominance of the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme in certain regions of Australia complicates the interpretation of any analysis of indigenous employment. In order to enhance interpretation, the factors underlying indigenous employment should be examined separately for...

Australia is indeed a sunburnt country, and is arguably becoming increasingly sunburnt. If most climate predictions are correct, much of Australia will experience droughts even more often. This paper uses the Rural and Regional Families Survey to explore the economic and financial implications...

Enhancing migration and mobility has been put forward by various commentators as a solution to Indigenous disadvantage in Australia, This paper examined patterns of migration and factors associated with the decision to move and the choice of destination in order to assess the feasibility of this...

Much research about child poverty and disadvantage provides national estimates of child wellbeing, due to the ready availability of microdata at the national level. However, an increasing body of evidence suggests that there can be major differences in wellbeing between children living in...